N. Korea Steps Up Psychological Warfare vs. South

North Korea has recently strengthened its psychological warfare against South Korea.

With the Lee Myung-bak administration of South Korea reinforcing a crackdown on pro-North Korea Web sites, Pyongyang is taking advantage of online social networking sites not subject to South Korean law as channels to distribute propaganda materials in the South.

Documents obtained by ruling Grand National Party Rep. Lee Chul-woo, who belongs to the parliamentary committee on culture, sports, tourism, broadcasting and communications, from intelligence authorities showed that the number of detected cases of online materials that promote North Korea increased from 1,434 in 2007 to 14,430 last year.

In particular, the number of cases between January and August this year recorded 56,814, a 40-fold increase in three years.

Intelligence authorities found 106 pro-North Korea Web sites and blocked domestic access to 60 of them while closely analyzing the pro-North tendency of 46 others. The locations of the servers of the sites included the U.S. (46), Japan (26) and China (17). In August, 10,052 propaganda materials on such sites were found, up 31 percent from 7,680 last year.

Accordingly, the number of pro-North Korea foreign sites and illegal forums blocked or closed by South Korean intelligence is rising significantly each year. Seven sites were shut down in 2006, one in 2007, and two in 2008, but the number of such sites increased to 10 last year and 29 this year.

Authorities shut down the homepage of the South Korean chapter of "Beomcheonghakryeon," or the National Unification Student Council, which posted thousands of materials abetting the enemy in July.

The number of closed illegal Internet forums skyrocketed to 45 this year from two in 2008 and 18 last year. Police charged 21 people this year with making and distributing materials propagating the North, up from nine in 2008.

egija@donga.com